Camera Fail
Once upon a time, at a sheep festival far, far away, I broke my camera. Specifically I broke the screen, so I could still take pictures with it, I just couldn’t see what I was photographing. This led to a lot of kinnearing and a lot of funny looking shots, until yesterday. Yesterday, when I attempted to replace the screen myself, and now… well, now I can’t do anything with my camera.
Apparently when they say “don’t try this at home” they really mean it.
So tomorrow I get to take the thing over to the local camera shop and beg for their mercy; in the meantime the only thing I can possibly show you is a picture of the sample knit I’m working on, the gorgeous Ivy Wrap in some ultra tasty Buffalo Gold Lux.
Imagine it at twice the length, now—the combination of pattern and yarn is so lovely that I’m just whipping through this. I should have it done before the middle of the week.
I was hoping to have Caturday for you, especially since we have three new teeny tiny foster cats, but see above re: camera, so you’ll just have to trust me that they look like this:
Triumphant Return
Well, sort of. I’ve still got the sniffles and my schedule’s all upside down, but finally I’ve been able to get back to my usual knitting, spinning self. I polished off a pair of fishes—
(with apologies for the ridiculous photo, but if you think it’s hard to get pictures of your own feet, try doing it with a screen that you can’t see, and thus a timer that you can’t set.)
I have to say, although the pattern (Pomatomus) is still a favorite of mine, I don’t know that I’ll be using this yarn again. The feel of it was great, soft and smooth, but I can’t believe the inconsistency in the color. I mean, I understand that there can be differences between skeins of handpainted yarn, even within the same dyelot, but these two socks came from the same skein and the second sock is far less saturated than the first. Maybe if I’m lucky some of the dye will come out of the first sock when I wash ‘em, we’ll see. They’re on Ravelry here.
I’ve been spinning like crazy, as well; since all of my Rhinebeck purchases were fiber rather than yarn, there’s now a big imbalance issue in my stash, which I aim to correct by cranking out the yarn.
You’ll note I’ve been spinning, not so much with the plying. Since this is just a stash building exercise and I’m not in a rush to actually use any of this, I figured it would be better to spin for a while and then spend a day or two in the future plying up a whole mess of handspun. The two bobbins on the left will become a heavy laceweight, and the three on the right will be what’s fast becoming my usual light fingering weight. I’ve got more laceweight on the wheel now, as well as a couple of spindle projects, but I’m setting it all aside for a week or so in favor of…
a quick sample knit! More details on this later. :)
NYS&W 2009
AKA I Went to Rhinebeck and All I Got Was H1N1.
No kidding. Well no, I got other stuff too, but after all of my protestations that I didn’t need a flu shot, I’m not really around other people that often, etc., I suppose I was due for a little comeuppance in the form of a good (un)healthy dose of flu. And not even the kind I could’ve gotten vaccinated for, even. Oh well.
As usual, there were friends aplenty:
And although I almost came home with a wheel…
by the time I went back on Sunday to give it some serious consideration, it was gone. Probably for the best; my mum (hi mum!) really would’ve killed me. In the end my haul was pretty tiny, mostly consisting of really awesome fibers that I haven’t tried yet, plus a new tsock kit, which I’ll have to knit up before next year to keep the tradition going.
Unfortunately my camera also took a dive and ended up with a cracked screen, which is why I don’t have quite as many pictures of the weekend as I’d like. I can still take pictures, but I don’t know what they look like until I load them onto the computer. Things may look a little… surreal around here until I replace it.
All in all, it was a fun (if rather adventure-filled) show! Can’t wait to do it again next year.
Packing
Two sleeps left and I’m starting to get antsy and nervous over the logistics of this thing. Did you hear it might snow? I’m packing mittens and a leather coat. But it also might pour rain, so there’ll be a rain poncho and umbrella as well. Either way I’m predicting spending most of my time huddled up inside booth 26D, so if you’re looking for me, there’s the best place to check.
I’ve got two coffee cans full of cookies packed, with more to make tomorrow—
(Obviously the broken ones are not fit for public consumption, and must be eaten by me. Shame, really.)
And the aforementioned spindles and test fiber are ready for travel in their nice, safe, waterproof container.
I was hoping to have my sweaters all finished and packed (both Honeybee and Viv are making the trip), but Viv’s clasps are still not here, so I’m working on rigging a temporary closure.
Hopefully by the time you all see it in person it won’t have loops of scrap yarn through the front. With any luck it won’t be inside out, either, but no guarantees on that one.
So close, and yet…
I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather for the past couple of days, but I’m determined to make it through this week and enjoy myself this weekend, no matter what it takes. Almost everything that absolutely must be done for Rhinebeck is completed. Now all that’s left is packing, sewing on Viv’s clasps (which still haven’t arrived), and a few small pet projects that I’d like to get done but aren’t vital. So if I need to, I can sleep for the next few days to try and shake this bug.
The pomatomi continue onward…
I’d actually love to be knitting these faster, but if I get them done before I leave (or—heaven forfend—while I’m there) I’ll be without a mindless knitting project, so I’m trying to stretch them a little longer.
I also spun up the second ply of that merino/silk that I’d like to finish this week, on the same bobbin as the first ply because I was too lazy to wind off. I just spun a bit of contrasting color scrap fiber in between the two and kept going. Of course, now I have to wind off both plies to have room for the third one, but still.
I also had to move the wheel downstairs, where I could put it behind a closed door, because of this little problem:
Oh, cats.
Panic
Eight days left and I’ve entered that point where mentally, I know I’m ahead of (or, at the very least, on) schedule, but emotionally, I’m in panic mode. What if I forget (insert important object here)? What if it’s cold? What if it rains? What if I’m not bringing enough spindles?
What if I’m bringing too many spindles? (I know, I know. There’s no such thing as too many. But what if?)
Obviously the only way to de-stress is to…
start a new knitting project.
Countdown
Ten days left ’til I leave for Rhinebeck and I couldn’t be more excited or panicked. The shop is shut down so I can start labeling and packing spindles, because I am not waiting for the night before to do it like I did last year. Viv has been washed and blocked and fits perfectly—
so once the clasps get here I can sew ‘em on fast and that will be done too.
I was also hoping to get in one last skein of handspun before potentially handing over my bobbin to have copies made,
but this is only the first ply so that may or may not happen.
Still on the to-do list: finish up the last handful of spindles, label and pack them as noted above, figure out what knitting and spinning projects to take with me, and clean this place up a bit so I don’t come home to a disaster area.
(That last one might end up being too much to handle. We’ll see.)
Creation
On the seventh day, Jesh finished a sweater.
It’s currently blocking and I’m still considering what to do about a closure, but it certainly went faster than anticipated. So… now what do I do for the next two weeks? (Just kidding. I still have a million things left to do before Rhinebeck and two weeks is still nowhere near enough time.)
Now I need to go ice my wrists and cuddle some poor, neglected kittens.
Speed
It has come to my attention that I may be knitting VIvian a bit… too fast. I know, it seems like a crazy concept to me, too. But since I am very near the joining row to start the yoke, and have gotten to this point in a mere five days, and have a whole two weeks left to complete the sweater…
Well, gosh. Maybe I should slow down. Where’s the fun if I’m not scrambling to finish at the last minute?
Challenge
Some of you may recall that, in late April, with merely three days to go before MDS&W, I challenged myself to knit, wash, block, and wear a Hyrna Herborgar. Apparently I like knitting things on a serious deadline.
I’m giving myself three weeks this time (I started Saturday morning), but then, Vivian is a lot bigger than Hyrna… and I still have to prep forty spindles for sale as well. Currently taking bets on whether I will finish in a blaze of glory or crash and burn spectacularly. Also taking bets on whether or not I can squeeze the whole thing (sans hood) out of only 7 skeins of Cascade 220. If not… there may be tears.
